Utah Republicans Ignore the Rules, Views of 90% of Republican Voters

So, the Utah Republican Party made it official:

Just because it's in the party bylaws, doesn't mean it's really how we're really going to do things.

As I reported a few weeks ago, the bylaws of the Utah Republican Party clearly state:

B. Allocation and Binding of National Delegation. All National Convention delegates and alternates shall be allocated to the candidate receiving the most votes of the statewide vote in the Republican Presidential Primary. On the first ballot, the national delegation shall be bound to vote for the candidate who has received the most votes in the Republican Presidential Primary, but the delegation shall not be bound on any subsequent ballots.

Sounds pretty clear, doesn't it? Romney won the Utah Primary by a HUGE margin, and the delegates are bound to him.

Romney can't change it, nor can anyone else.

I forgot. This is the Utah Republican Party. They can do anything they want.

Utah Republicans staged a grown-up version of Red Rover on Saturday, successfully paving the way for delegates previously committed to Mitt Romney to come over to presumptive candidate John McCain's side of the playing field.

The switch was made possible by a Republican Central Committee proposal, approved by committee members Saturday, that clarified what committee leaders described as an "ambiguity" in language that previously bound national delegates to the top vote getter in the state's primary election. Romney's decision to pull out of the campaign two days after Utah's participation in the Feb. 5 primary juggernaut left the 36 state Republican delegates committed to a candidate suddenly out of the race but without a contingency plan.

Bluffdale City Councilwoman and RNC National Committeewoman is going to think about going with the will of the voters, and not the will of Stan Lockhart:

"I think it's dishonest and disingenuous," Lord said. "They can sit there and pontificate about how this is the appropriate way to handle it, but I'm not buying it."

Lord said she believes she is beholden to the voters she represents and that the vast majority of those voters, 90 percent, cast votes for Romney.

"They can say we're bound to McCain," Lord said. "But I choose to honor the vote of the people and the will of the state. I had my mandate when people voted so overwhelmingly for Romney."

Lord said she needed some time to get over what happened at Saturday's meeting and would "have to think about" what she will do at the national convention.

-Bob